CNN Money and Bloomberg.com carried a little story on Feb. 28 that probably didn’t make your news feed. The first Deepwater drilling permit since the Deepwater Horizon blowout has been issued to Noble Energy Inc. The new well is near the site of the disaster that killed 11 workers. However, CNN Money, Bloomberg and apparently the A.P., failed to report that Noble Energy and several other partners own only about half of the well, while our old friend, BP owns 46%.
This is a hold your nose moment for many people. Somehow, it just doesn’t seem right does it? If you are naughty in elementary school, they at least send you to the end of the line, don’t they? Still, one of the problems is we have failed to plan and invest far enough into the future. Human kind does not yet possess the higher thinking or the courage necessary to attain true sustainability. Our immediate needs, which really have never been needs, but rather excesses, have always driven the energy machine which drives the economic machine. BP is not the devil. To accept that makes me the devil’s keeper. I’m just a guy who likes to drive down to the coffee shop or put up Christmas lights.
I don’t hate BP. Hell, 60% of self-described “vegetarians” in a recent poll admitted to eating meat within the last 72 hours. As much as it is talked about, energy remains like an elephant to a blind man. We feel the parts – dependence, independence, conservation, regulation, alternative, utility bills and price at the pump, but we really can’t grasp how big and complicated this thing is.
The good news is that deep water drilling will have to proceed more conservatively. (Funny how conservatives want everything to be conservative except when it comes to balancing competing legitimate interests in the making of the almighty dollar and then they want it wheels off, balls to the wall, no regulation, full speed ahead.) The Obama Administration lifted the moratorium on permits back in October but the pace of permitting has been nil until now. All of the new regulations and requirements stymied a sudden rush back into deep water. The energy industry appears poised to embrace higher safety expectations and the Energy Department expects to permit more deep water wells soon
Companies that show that they can diligently work safely and have a disaster plan with the equipment readily available to implement the plan, will have no trouble getting the permit. It simply comes down to two questions: How will you prevent a blowout? How will you handle a blowout? That’s what Noble Energy has done and provided a model for other companies to follow. Noble has a partner, Helix Energy Solutions Group that has the technology to contain and recover massive amounts of oil from a spill and to drill relief wells. There is that nagging question about what control BP can have in questions of operation and safety of the well but there at least appears to be resolve in the industry not to have more public relations, not to mention environmental, disasters.
BP ignored Helix’s offer of help for six weeks when Horizon blew out. Helix’s involvement is a good sign. That and the fact that BP did not pay bonuses to executives responsible for operations in the Gulf of Mexico last year, may signal a new era of “safety first” at BP. In fact, new CEO Bob Dudley, who replaced the inept Tony Hayward, also refused any bonus this year. Early in his tenure, Dudley announced that in the future BP’s incentive payments would be linked to safety performance.
This is good for the economy and jobs and just as short sighted as we have always been about energy. One of these days we really will have to plan like 2111 is just around the corner. Well, because it is.
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